Category Archives: Ethics

In Cold Blood? We have a great penchant for putting the cart before the horse. The movers and shakers of this world need to recognize that we have to turn the world right side up, not upside down! Buyers and sellers need to understand that we have a great need to buy and sell in

Acquisition The desire for gain is one of the two basic motivations we humans have. The fear of loss is the other one. This desire for gain is not just for material things. It can be the adulation of others, having deep friendships or perhaps simply having the ability to enjoy the wonders of Nature.

“Give me liberty, or give me death!” ~ Patrick Henry Clarity is greatly liberating, in the sense that decisiveness is enhanced by it. Since liberty is not the right to do as we like, but the freedom to do as we ought, then being clear how our convictions inform our actions opens up many degrees

Hacks? Is it just me, or are you seeing more and more people posting about “life hacks” and “tricks” to magically get around problems and situations of every imaginable sort? What are your favourites? One of mine is about how to open a can of food if you don’t happen to have a can opener.

All of us have ideals in mind and heart. The world we live in, though, is far from perfect. Organizations are not perfect. People are not perfect. I am not perfect. Neither are you. We continue to see some people expressing their desire to do good and be good, and perhaps posting a thing or

I am fed up with people selling fantasies to everyone on their contact list. Exasperated by declarations of “It Will Be Great!” with no definite, organic steps in the right direction. Signs like “You Should Be Here!” make me shake my head at the foolishness of exploiting others. I’ve never read that classic called “The

Inducements to be normal are very powerful indeed. So powerful that individuals tend to remain silent and compliant when living in a highly “abnormal” society even when they feel things are not right. As a whole, we don’t want to believe the scientific evidence that the law of entropy is relentless and that the human

We love referring to classics, don’t we? Many of the quotes that we like to use for self-affirmation or when we’re just trying to appear as if we do have some degree of sophistication come from some classic or other. Someone has of course quipped that a classic is “A book everyone knows about but

Seems like an inexhaustible number, right? Wrong. Seven billion is finite. Seven billion can still be counted. I’m talking about our collective insatiable need to “Get this cheaper somewhere else. Never pay full price again.” Someone, somewhere, will always be selling it more cheaply, and we will never run out of sources of cheap goods

Are you concerned about privacy on Facebook and other social media sites? Are you concerned with privacy online in general? Why, what big commercial secret projects are you handling? What’s the big deal? As we think about that, we might come to a realization that the big deal is US. It’s our inner voice, our

At this writing, the question of whether the Scots go their own bonny way has yet to be decided. Ironically, as I took in more news on the subject, the song “When a child is born”, popularized by Johnny Mathis, sprang to my mind. What happens when you think of a child being born? Do

Have you ever been encouraged to “fire your Boss”? Have you thought about “firing your Boss” yourself? I wrote a little bit about this in “Wish You Could Fire Your Boss? Why? So You Can Take Over?” a while back, and I’d like to expand on this a little more. Think of all the reasons

“Say what you mean and mean what you say” seems to have lost its meaning for at least some people these days. Whatever proceeds forth out of your mouth is no longer valued as what will be done, what has been agreed upon. Saying “You have my word on that” no longer holds water for many

Probably yes, whether you’re male or female. Before we go further, let’s establish a few things. 1. When you put men and women in stressful environments and make them work together and be dependent on each other for long periods of time, they will soon cease to act as working professionals towards each other

To be given a mandate is to be authorized to make decisions and take action in line with the intent of the authority giving the mandate. The nature of the mandate is very important. It needs to be clear, unambiguous and guided by universal principles. It needs to empower the one to whom it is

For domestic chickens, a chick hatches after a 21-day period of incubation. The chick has to peck thousands of times at the shell before it emerges. It is a slow, laborious and exhausting process, and by the time the chick pops out of the egg, wet and tired, it has probably pecked at the shell

In the previous post, I talked about Unconscious Power, which is one of the effects of having achieved Unconscious Competence in some area of endeavour or growth. Here, I discuss Conscious Authority. I once heard someone describe power and authority like this, “Football players have power. The referee has authority.” I thought it was a

In a time when even the written word can be made to be untrustworthy, the spoken word which goes forth from our mouths tends to be undervalued, despised and ignored. How sad. How much more worry and anxiety trying to ensure that reams of “legalease” are drafted in order to protect our own interests. How

Choices, choices, choices. Some we love to have, others we wish we didn’t have to make. Life is full of them. This or that. Now or later. Cake or cookies. Us or them. Innovate or optimize. Profit or value. Lead or follow. (Or get out of the way). The list goes on. In the previous

Ah, the domain of the sacrosanct, because it is OUR private life! Nothing to do with the entities we happen to helm, because it is OUR private life! In this world, where the levels of fairness and justice can truly be said to be remarkable, NO ONE is entitled to have a private life. Only

I suppose you know enough by now not to nod your head. To me, compromise is never good. This is because I sense that the word “compromise” seems to have more of the implication of “Cheating-on-my-Promise” than of the sense of “…to abide by an arbiter’s decision…” I would suggest that the following terms be

As Week Six of 2014 opens, take a little time to reflect upon the mindsets that characterize you. What is your default mindset? Are you happy with it? Are there things which you’d like changed? Do you need to grow in certain aspects? Here are a few Magnificent Mindsets which I trust will be something you

Many people writing in the online literature seem to advocate that, in marketing and in negotiation, it is ok to lie in order to get the sale, or get the project or get the contract. They might not say it so explicitly, but things like “over-promising” so as to “get the sale” and then “worry

I really miss when spades were called spades. Circumvention is, unfortunately, a skill which I think all of us wish secretly we could disinvent. If you’re a leader worth your salt, you’d know what I mean. If we paid each of our people what they are truly worth, the income of the rainmaker would not

Before you throw that stone at me, answer this question: Would you like to keep cancer tissue in your body? Right, I didn’t think so either! Did you experience righteous indignation welling up inside of you when you saw the title of this post? Why? Do you subscribe to “Get the right people on the

“I’m serious”. “No, I’m not”. “Yes, I am”. “What ARE you really saying?” “Well, research has shown that people who exercise three times a week are twice as likely to die suddenly as people who exercise five times a week”. “Egg white has nutrients you don’t know about yet”. Welcome to the strategic art of

Douglas O’Loughlin shared this on Facebook, and I thought I’d pen some of my thoughts about this, since effective, practical leadership development is central to the topic. The McKinsey article may be found here: http://bit.ly/JqlnGE The article lists four principles for a better public sector: Better evidence for decision making. Greater engagement and empowerment of citizens.

I might be attracting the ire of some people with this post, but that’s an occupational hazard. Mind you, I’ve had many pets over the years. Dogs, mostly, but also mynahs, rabbits, guinea pigs, white mice, budgerigars, tortoises, fish, spiders and others I shall not name for the sake of the queasy of stomach. Did

There is a notion that seems to be rather ubiquitous. That notion is that personal values must be in alignment with organizational values or clashes between values may occur, resulting in impaired work performance. Excuse me. Saying something like that reminds me of what I read somewhere, Harvey MacKay, I think, which asks “Have you

Download the pdf. Hi, this is Elijah Lim. Today I would like to ask the question “Is Business War?” And most of us have of heard of expressions like this: “Business is war”, “Business in the trenches”, “We have to outperform the competition”, “We have to kill the competition”, “We have to absorb them”,

Download the pdf. Hi, this is Elijah Lim. “What do we learn from movies?” Now, most of us, if not all of us, have watched a movie or two in our lifetime. And of course, movies are meant to entertain us, meaning that when we go to movies, we are amused. Now, the word “amuse”

I get ideas for my posts from all over. I think I must really be a reactionary sort of fellow. I love having bricks thrown at me, gives me material to make things. The title of this one came from a casual remark made by a friend I was with before we went to call

When Martin Luther King declared “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal”, he inadvertently gave a phrase and a concept for all modern-day Robin Hoods to exploit. Now, I’m certainly no fan of the Sheriff of Nottingham either, but two wrongs don’t make a right. You know by now

You are biased. I am biased. They are biased. We are all biased. If you encounter someone coming up to you saying, “My reporting of the case in unbiased” or “I settled the quarrel in a fair and unbiased manner”, you should quickly laugh out loud in his face! There is simply no such thing

Have you heard leaders say things like that just before the launch of a new initiative? Or perhaps you’ve heard them utter similar phrases in the wake of a disaster or other scandal. Are you aware that most of them are lying through their teeth? Have you made such statements yourself? Taking the responsibility for

I came across an article a few years ago describing how composting is on the increase in Java, Indonesia. Artificial fertilizers in the 1970s had boosted crop yields for a short period, but yields dropped after that, and the land was poisoned. A local bank initiated a composting drive, collecting waste from markets and converting

Baby Boomers. Gen X. Gen Y. Gen Z. Gen Gap. Gen Repeat Process. Gen ad infinitum. We really love labelling, stereotyping and generalizing, don’t we? Just because some “expert” said that “studies have shown that…”, means we pick up the paint roller and give all and sundry the broad-brush treatment. Does that happen to you?

Reverence. Deep respect. Solemn, gloomy hallways. No fun. Wait a minute! Is there joy? Is there esteem for others? Esteem for self? Is there deep satisfaction? A bubbling up of enthusiasm from an ever-springing fountain? Would reverence be relevant to you? Irreverence. The opposite. Nothing is sacred. No limits. No boundaries. Free and easy. No

Mould in bread inspired this post. We opened a bag with two slices of bread left in it this morning and saw that the two slices of bread were mouldy. Since we’re not in the penicillin manufacturing business, we promptly discarded them as mouldy thoughts ran through my mind. The word “mould” is also used

“Lost Horizon” is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery high in the mountains of Tibet. I have not read the book and I have not seen the film, but I have remembered the title since I was very young. How

Angelina Jolie was applauded all round on TrendIn this week. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the title was “Sophie’s Choice”. Was it a coincidence? The TrendIn article talked about how Jolie decided to go ahead with the double mastectomy based on a “higher probability” that she would have breast

While discussing the effects of strip mining and related unsustainable agricultural practices as part of our family’s syllabus, we came across the name of Georgius Agricola. It is very likely that he cared not only for the environment, but for the well-being of mine workers as well. Not something you would have thought a 16th

I just saw a friend’s post about a rather less-than-satisfactory dining experience. This is what she wrote. No names or locations mentioned in this post. “I feel compelled to write this review as this is the worst restaurant experience I ever had. When I made the reservation I was told that there is only a

Profanity seems to be more and more prevalent these days. That’s how I hear it, in any case. The age at which the use of crude or foul language is “acceptable” appears to me to be getting lower and lower. It used to be that girls who cuss were really wayward. Now it seems to

An article just caught my eye. It talks about people ignoring their own moral standards when acting as market participants. That is, when buying food at the supermarket or wet market, trading in stocks and shares and the like. People have a tendency, the article says, to justify deliberately ignoring their own moral standards with

Al Bagocious shared an article from the WSJ titled “The Case for Lying to Yourself” on LinkedIn. The article says that in some cases it might be ok or even beneficial to lie to yourself, but that you should know where to draw the line between how much of lying to yourself might be beneficial

An old song has a line which goes “It’s hard for me to say I’m sorry…”. Does that happen to you? Do you think you’ll be seen as weak if you truly say you’re sorry? Actually, to me, yes, if you say you’re sorry, you’re a sorry weakling. Do you know why? Well, it’s because

Roots. Unseen. Unattractive. Not in the limelight. Highly essential if you want good plant growth and, ultimately, good fruit. For every leaf above ground, there are probably hundreds more roots and root hairs working tirelessly to absorb the nutrients so vital for overall plant growth and ultimately a great harvest. Do you want to have

I came across this great article by Brooke Allen on Quartz, which was featured in LinkedIn Today. You can read the article at the link, and I strongly recommend that you do! http://qz.com/77020 The article reminds me of a short clip by Simple Truths called “The 100/0 Principle”. Write and tell me what you think!

I saw some news online today that reminded me to get the message out – when the majority of the planet is in dire need of help, should we be wasting resources on our own selfish fancies? The news reported that a Dutch reality show was seeking volunteers for a one-way trip to Mars. If